There’s nothing like a massive, runaway blockbuster film to inspire tributes from fans. Sometimes they’re pretty stupid, and other times, they’re just cool.
Take, for instance, —a retro, 1920s Dark Knight short, made from editing together a slew of vintage silent films, such as The Bat (1926), The Man Who Laughs (1928), The Cabinet Of Doctor Caligari (1920); Edison’s Frankenstein (1910), The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz (1910), and a tad of the sound-era Batman serials from 1943.
Presented in on YouTube, the flick features a who’s who of yesteryear stars, including Jack Pickford as Bruce Wayne; Conrad Veidt as The Joker; Werner Krauss as The Penguin; Olga Baclanova as The Catwoman; George Beranger as The Scarecrow; J. Carrol Naish as R’as Al Ghul; Eddie Gribbon as Inspector Gordon; and Louise Fazenda as the Woman of Ill Repute.
Simple (and occasionally slow) in its execution, the 12-minute fan edit makes a pointed but respectful statement about how the Batman we know and fear today was derived from uncredited sources. Edited together in two days by Andre Perkowski, the short also benefits from his self-composed soundtrack, reminscent of some of David Sylvian’s atmospheric works from the mid-’80s. For a truly different take on The Dark Knight, this definitely worth a watch.
I was about to complain about the jumpy titles getting a little dizziness inducing, but looks like that was fixed for the third segment called “Arkham after Midnight” or some long confusing title that just went up:
More of a story, too. I love this kind of thing, gets you all thinking “what if.” He’d be in a shoe-in for Elseworlds if DC were still doing that. Or give him a six part limited series to “revitalize Mad Hatter for today’s generation.”
Arguably one of the best and original fan-mixes I’ve ever seen! I want to DOWNLOAD this and keep it in my hardrive JUST SO I CAN WATCH IT OVER AND AGAIN. This piece is not only reflective, but is also INSPIRATIONAL for any aspiring creator out there who, after rummaging through a slew of Batman-related material, just needs to get to the core elemental aspects of the characters and their mythologies… If anyone can point me to a source of download (’cause You Tube’s a sheer pain) please e-mail me! thanks. -Nave Hayder